


Blind in the Frey

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Abandonment, Eventual Romance, Family, Female!Loki - Freeform, Kind of Canon Compliant, Magic, Other, father-daughter dynamics, norse mythology.....kind of, parenting, s.h.i.e.l.d. is meh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-24 06:23:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17699285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Runa McDunham is brought in to help the newly formed Avengers fight against Loki, long hidden truths are revealed and lives are changed forever.





	1. prologue

  **August 31st, 1997**

**Portland, Maine, United States, Midgard**

Five-year-old Runa McDunham was laying silently in her bed, fighting off sleep as best as she could, when the door to her bedroom silently opened. Her mother walked in, flicked on the lights, and quickly and silently shut the door behind her. She was wearing strange clothes, clothes that maybe a wizard in  _The Hobbit_ would wear. Maybe she and daddy were playing dress up? 

“Mama?” Runa asks, pushing herself up on her elbows.

Her mother placed a finger up to her lips, signaling for Runa to be quiet. She walks over to Runa’s bed and sits down next to her. Obviously somethings wrong but young Runa is too naive to realize this. 

“Honey, I need you to be real quiet for me. Can you do that?” She asks. 

Runa nods with a smile on her face. They hadn’t played this game before and it seemed exciting. 

“I——I uh, I have to go” Her mother says, a sad expression taking hold of her pale face. 

“Go?” Runa asks, not liking this game anymore. 

“Yeah. I need to go see my mama and daddy, but I’ll be back soon” Her mother says. 

“Why can’t I come? I’ve never met grandma and grandpa!” Runa exclaims. 

Her mother quickly clamps her hand over Runa’s mouth with a scowl forming with her own. 

“Maybe next time, sweetie. I’ll be leaving all of my books so you can study up on your magic while I’m gone” Her mother says with a smile on her face. 

Runa’s eyes twinkled with excitement - she wasn’t allowed to do any magic when her mother wasn’t home because her father didn’t like it. Maybe she could teach him how to do some of it. Her mother removes her hand from over Runa’s mouth and smiles at her daughter. 

“Are you gonna be gone long?” Runa asks. 

“No, I’ll be back before you know it” She said with a smile. 

“Okay” Runa says before moving to give her mother a hug. 

Her mother held her for a long time, stroking her hair. She released her eventually, with tears forming in her eyes. 

“Don’t cry, Mama, you’ll be back soon!” Runa says optimistically with a smile on her face. 

Her mother chuckled before wiping the tears away from her eyes. She stands from Runa’s before after she planks a quick kiss on her forehead. 

“I love you, my little rune” She says as she moves over to the door. 

“Love you too, Mama” 

Her mother smiled at her one last time before turning the light off and slipping out the door.

~~~~~

Outside the door, her mother nearly burst into tears. She stalked silently through the house, forcing herself not to climb back into bed with Runa’s father. But she couldn’t exactly do that when the strongest warriors from Asgard were ready to break down the door. 

As she neared the door, Lori McDunham shifted back into being Prince Loki of Asgard. He opened the door and was once reminded that not only Thor, but also Sif, were the ones that Odin sent to track him down. 

“It’s been quite some time, brother” Loki says neutrally to his brother as he steps out of his house for possibly the last time. 

Loki has been on Midgard for nearly the past six years at this point. The first thing he did when he arrived on the planet was shapeshifter into his female form and take to calling himself ‘Lori Orland’. He, under the disguise of Lori, met Runa’s father, Richard McDunham, nearly a month after arriving on the planet and fell in love with him immediately. Richard only knew that Loki, well Lori, knew magic and he never wanted an explanation for that. They got married after knowing each other for six months and had Runa almost immediately after getting married. 

“Don’t get angry with me, Loki, I didn’t want to come and find you, Father ordered us to” Thor responds apologetically. 

“You could have always told him that you were unable to find me” Loki responded curtly. 

“Let’s stop this before you two fight, we need to return to Odin” Sif says, obviously not wanting to be there either. 

“As you wish” Loki says, crossing his arms in front of his chest. 

Sif and Thor grab one of Loki’s crossed arms and they prepare themselves to be transported by the BiFrost. Loki looks around one last time, knowing that if Odin has anything to do with it he won’t be returning to Midgard anytime soon. 

~~~

The first thing that greets Loki when he arrives back in Asgard is the fresh air that is no longer on Midgard. Even after being there for as long as he was, the air felt foul to him. The city was deep asleep and no one noticed how Thor and Sif marched him up the castle as if he were a mere prisoner of war. 

All Loki could think about were Richard and Runa. They would be fine without him there for a few days and when he returned he would figure out something to explain his sudden disappearance. Tell them that his parents called suddenly and wanted him to come and visit, without his husband or daughter. But that would hardly sell to someone with half a brain and Richard is certainly smarter than that. 

The three of them were silent the entire walk to the palace throne room where Loki was sure that Odin was waiting for them. He hardly left the room when Loki was there and six years isn’t a long enough time for an Asgardian to change anything about their daily schedules, especially the king. 

And, sure enough, he was waiting for them in the throne room. A slight grimace is on his face when the three enter the room but it quickly disapated. He stands as they enter and walk down from the throne to be closer to them.

”Thor, Sif, you may go” Odin says, waving a hand at the door in a form of dismissal. 

They both nod before leaving the room, the only sound quickly becoming the clanking of their armor. 

“Father, I-“ Loki starts. 

“What were you doing on Midgard?” Odin asks, a small scowl tugging at his lips. 

“I think you already know the answer to that” The prince responds. 

“So you wanted to get married and settle down, huh? If you had told me, all of the noblewomen would’ve lined the streets at the chance to get your attention” Odin responds. 

“I went to Midgard to see what it’s like there and I happened to do those things while I was there. When can I go back and see my daughter?” Loki asks, clearly impatient and wanting to return to his child. 

“I can’t just send you back to Midgard. We don’t rule there, Loki, and if the other realms caught wind of it they would call for war” Odin responds harshly. 

“The only people who knew I was there was my family” Loki says indignatly. 

“Loki, my final answer is no and if you go against that it’s treason” Odin responds. 

Instead of responding, Loki spins around and all but sprints out of the throne room. He would find a way to convince Odin to let him go without it being treason.


	2. horizon

**May 2nd, 2012**

**S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Operations, Unknown Location**

Runa McDunham sighs as she looks at the board at the front of the lecture room. She couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to what the professor, well Agent, was saying as she probably knows it all already anyway. She was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately after she graduated from high school as she had been on their radar for a long time. When kids in Maine report of a girl being able to lift cars and preform magic they’re obviously going to look into it. Her father wasn’t too keen on being moved across the country by a secret government organization but he had to suck it up and move anyway. 

They taught her how to control her abilities and basically suppress them unless they were absolutely needed. But, maybe, if her mother hadn’t bailed on her and her father when she was five they wouldn’t have had to do all of those things. But, because of all of that, Director Fury himself recruited her directly after her high school graduation. No one else, despite Director Fury, at S.H.I.E.L.D knew about her abilities so she isn’t treated any differently by any of the other agents. 

The door to the lecture hall basically bursts open and three agents, lead by one that looked slightly familiar, entered the lecture hall. The professor, an Agent Kraus, immediately stopped teaching and basically glared at the three agents. 

“Who are you looking for?” Agent Kraus asks the three agents.

“Runa McDunham” The seeming-to-be senior agent says.

Agent Kraus swivels her head to look at Runa and points at her. Runa takes that as her cue to start putting all of her things in her bag. She silently packs up her things and swings her messenger bag onto her shoulder before she walks to the front of the classroom without the other three agents moving a muscle. 

“Sorry for the disruption, proceed” The senior agent says as he begins to lead Runa and the two others out of the lecture hall.  

One of the other agents closes the door behind the rest of them as they all leave the lecture hall. They start walking down the hall towards what Runa immediately identifies as the exit to the helipad. Where are these three agents taking her? 

“Can I ask what this is about? And who are you?” Runa asks tentatively. 

“I’m Agent Coulson and these are Agents James and Thomas. I have some questions about your mother” The senior agent says.

”My mother?” Runa asks, completely shocked. 

“Yes. When was the last time you had contact with her?” Agent Couslon asks. 

“Nearly fifteen years ago, I was five when she left” Runa replies. 

“Did she speak to you at all directly before she left?” Agent Coulson asked. 

“She said that she had to visit her parents and that I would be able to go with her next time” She responded. 

“Do you know if your father has had any contact with her since then?” 

“No, he would refuse to speak to her even if she did try to contact him. She didn’t even wake him up that night to let him know that she was leaving. What could she have possibly done to warrant S.H.I.E.L.D’s attention?” Runa asks.

”That will be explained to you in a little bit. We have some light traveling to do so Agent James and Agent Thomas will bring your things back to your dorm” Agent Coulson says. 

After he said that, either Agent James or Agent Thomas slips Runa’s bag off of her shoulder and the two of them break off from Agent Coulson and herself. Where in the world are they traveling to? Is her father okay? 

“Is my father okay?” Runa asks, noticing how worried she sounds. 

“Your father is perfectly safe, Miss McDunham” Agent Coulson responds. 

The rest of the walk up to the helipad is spent in silence, both of them stuck in their thoughts. Could she possibly see her mother again soon? She basically doesn’t remember what she looks like these days, that’s why Runa keeps a picture of the two of them together in her wallet. It’s a picture that was taken by a neighbor during Runa’s second birthday party. Runa’s father always told Runa that she was a dead ringer for her mother and the picture proves that; they both have the same regal features, dark hair, pale skin, and emerald green eyes. 

A helicopter is already running and ready to go when they reach the helipad. The two of them climb in and buckle up before the pilot lifts them up off of the air. Runa looks out the window in amazement, she’s never been in a plane before let alone a helicopter. 

After a few moments, Agent Coulson reaches next to his seat and pulls out a vanilla folder with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the front. He silently hands it over to Runa, who looks at it with a confused expression on her face. 

“All you need to know about why Director Fury is bringing you in is in that file” He explains. 

Runa nods and opens the file. The content seems to be brief enough where she can read it completely by the time they get to their destination. 


	3. wide eyes

**May 2nd**

**S.H.I.E.L.D** **Helicarrier, Unknown Location**

“Welcome to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Miss McDunham” Agent Coulson says pleasantly.

“Runa’s fine” She says politely.

The agent simply nods his head with a pleasant expression still on his face. The two of them exit the helicopter and Agent Coulson leads them inside of the Helicarrier. Runa follows the older agent quietly, knowing that it would have taken her ages to learn about this place if she hadn’t been brought here today. She didn’t even know that they had a Helicarrier!

As they walked, Runa could hear slight arguing coming from the room a few dozen feet ahead of them. She was assuming that it was the main hub of the Helicarrier and that’s where the majority of the agents probably are. After a few moments, Agent Coulson and herself walk through the open doorway and into what Runa is calling the ‘central hub’. At a large table a few feet away from the door are a group of.....misplaced looking people. Runa probably doesn’t look a whole lot better in her civilian clothes than they do. Two of them she does recognize without the help of the file that Agent Coulson gave her; one of them is Steve Rogers aka Captain America and the other one is Tony Stark aka Iron Man! Director Fury is standing a few feet away from them, quietly discussing something with Agent Hill, his second-in-command. The three other people at the table who are S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Natasha Romanoff, Dr. Bruce Banner, and Thor.

The argument they heard walking down the hallway since ended and everyone at the table was sitting or standing in moderate silence. 

”Director Fury, I believe that everyone is here” Agent Coulson says from his place standing next to Runa.

Everyone at the table swivels to look at both Runa and Agent Coulson. Director Fury nods and walks over to approach the two of them.

“Hello, Runa, it’s been awhile” Director Fury says friendly enough.

“Yeah, it has” She replies.

“Uh, can you explain why the final addition to this team is an actual child?” Tony Stark asks Fury.

“I’m twenty” Runa says before Director Fury is able to say anything otherwise.

“I would like for everyone to meet Runa McDunham, the final member of your team” Director Fury says, not even bothering to answer Stark’s question.

Everyone at the table politely nods in greeting at Runa, most of them looking confused as to why she’s there. Runa is just as confused as them, seeing as how no one has bothered to explain to her why she’s even there in the first place. She hasn’t even finished her training at the academy yet so it can’t be because of her abilities as an agent. And there was also nothing at all about her in the copy of the file that Agent Coulson gave her so it wasn’t a leap to assume that the identical files the others got remained that way.

”Loki’s gonna drag this out so, Thor, what’s his play?” Rogers asks.

“He has an army, called the Chitauri. They’re not of Asgard, or of any world known. He means to use them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in turn for, I expect, the Tesseract” Thor responds.

“An army” Rogers states.

Runa sort of zones out at that exact moment. A ringing sound fills her ears and her tongue feels like lead in her mouth. The last time this happened was when she was a little kid, soon after her mom abandoned her and her dad. It probably happened a week after she left and Runa was in this ‘state’ for what seemed like hours but was probably only around fifteen minutes. Anything anyone is saying goes in one ear and comes out the other, just like the saying goes. One thing that her brain latches on to however, is when Thor says that Loki is his brother. Why would they bring Thor here when there’s a possibly that he could be secretly working with Loki? She notices when Dr. Banner and Stark leave but doesn’t know why they do.

She clenches her fists at her sides and channels her breathing through her nose. She definitely didn’t need for this to happen right now. After what seemed like a few minutes of doing this, the ringing in her ears seemed to fade and her tongue went back to feeling like how tongues normally feel like. At that point, everyone sitting around the table had gone silent. Agent Coulson was gone and so were Director Fury and Agent Hill. Now the only people near the table were Rogers, Agent Romanoff, and Thor.

“So, Runa, did they explain to you why exactly you’re here? Because there’s nothing about you in the file with everyone else” Rogers bluntly says.

“No, they didn’t” Runa responds curtly.

If Director Fury trusts them all enough to bring them in for an issue such as this, Runa should trust them as well but she doesn’t know what she can tell them and what she can’t. It’s not like she knows anymore about the situation at hand than they do so there’s no harm in taking part in conversation.

“That’s certainly odd. Are you with S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Rogers asks.

Runa’s gaze slides over to Agent Romanoff for a moment, who had slightly stalked off and looked like she was trying to make her escape at any moment, before moving it back over to Rogers. Surely she would be able to tell them about the academy, right? Rogers is basically with S.H.I.E.L.D anyway and Thor is an extraterrestrial being so what’s the harm in it?

“I’m training at the Academy, that’s where Agent Coulson picked me up as well” Runa responds.

Out of the corner of her eye, Runa notices that Thor is giving her a slightly baffled look. What is that about?

“You said your surname was McDunham?” He asks.

Runa simply nods.

“That’s funny” Thor says with a chuckle, scratching his chin.

“How so?” Runa asks with a pointed look.

What’s so funny about her last name? It’s not very unique, as far as last names go, so there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it.

“That’s the surname of someone Loki enthralled the last time he was here on Midgard. I believe that their name was Richard?” Thor asks, as if he doubts his memory.

Runa’s eyes widen for just a moment before she forces her expression to go back to one of neutrality. Richard is her fathers name but, as far as she knows, he doesn’t exactly play both sides of the field.

“T-that’s my fathers name. When exactly was Loki here last?” Runa asks, her voice quivering a bit.

“About twenty or so years ago.....” Thor trailed off before a shocked expression takes hold of his face.

“What?” She asks, now slightly concerned for the god.

“You’re his daughter!” Thor exclaims triumphantly, as if he just realized something huge.

Is this man crazy or something? Obviously she’s Richards daughter, she did say that moments prior. He couldn’t possibly be insinuating that she’s Loki’s daughter. That’s utterly impossible! Loki’s a man and, with how basic anatomy and biology works, men can’t get pregnant and give birth to children.

“She’s who’s daughter?” Rogers asks, now suddenly interested in their conversation.

“Loki’s! That’s why Fury brought her here!”


End file.
